The effervescent brand new production of Top Hat, led by acclaimed American director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall, is brimming with toe-tapping talent and old Hollywood nostalgia.
When Broadway star Jerry Travers arrives in London to open a new show, he unexpectedly crosses paths with model Dale Tremont when he ruins her beauty sleep by tap dancing in the hotel suite above hers. Jerry becomes immediately enamoured with the spirited Miss Tremont and vows to abandon his bachelor life to win her. What follows is a farcical tale involving mistaken identities, an incognito butler, and a trip to Venice.
The flimsy plot of Top Hat is held together by its abundance of Irving Berlin’s classic songs which include ‘Cheek to Cheek’, ‘Isn’t This a Lovely Day (To Be Caught in the Rain)’, ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’, ‘Top Hat, White Tie and Tails‘, and ‘Let’s Face the Music and Dance.’
Choreographer and director Kathleen Marshall astutely manages the rickety script by keeping the dance routines visually exuberant and the comedy zippy. It is with the ensemble pieces that the dance numbers really engage and come to life.
Making his UK debut as Jerry Travers, Phillip Attmore fails to deliver top-notch vocals. Attmore, however, more than makes up for this with his nifty footwork and effortless physicality.
Lindsay Atherton is better matched vocally to lift Berlin’s gorgeous melodies and has an enduring elegance as his leading lady Dale Tremont.
This Top Hat stage adaptation is based on the 1935 RKO motion picture where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers famously hypnotised audiences with a magical romantic chemistry. A similar magnetism between Attmore and Atherton is never quite captured on stage, and curiously their key dance scenes, although aesthetically pleasing, come across as functional and disconnected from any passion.
Indeed, in this production of Top Hat, there is sometimes a danger of the sentimental protagonists being upstaged by the risible, more colourful characters. Among them is Sally Ann Triplett who, as the sassy twice-married American socialite Madge Hardwick, brings a much-needed zest to the start of act two. Comedically, Triplett is well matched with James Hume, as Madge’s maladroit producer husband Horace, and the pair shine as a partnership in the love-hate song, ‘Outside Of That, I Love You.’
James Clyde is hilarious in his various subterfuges as Horace’s valet Bates, while Alex Gibson-Giorgio oozes histrionics as the fashion designer Alberto Beddini, and displays a glorious baritone voice with the number ‘Latins Know How’.
Peter McKintosh’s Art Deco revolving set never fails to reveal lavish new centre stage backdrops, which are effectively complemented by Tim Mitchell’s vivid lighting designs.
Top Hat doesn’t always score a perfect ten, but with its boundless energy it has enough pizzazz to keep the winter blues away.
Tour listings and ticket information can be found here.
